2012 in news: Wii U’s launch detailed in September

September saw Nintendo enter the final stages of Wii U’s launch, TGS appear and vanish with barely a whimper and doctors Ray and Greg quit BioWare. Head below for the ninth part of our 2012 news retrospective.

The most significant news story in September was Nintendo’s announcement of Wii U’s global launch details. The console would release on December 8 in Japan, November 18 in the US and November 30 in the EU and Australia, with the base unit costing $300 in America.

MGS: Ground Zeroes was still dominating the news as the year moved into September. We had newvideos and screens, and Kojima confusing the sainted Bejesus out of everyone as to what the game actually was or wasn’t. MGS5? Prologue? Whatever it ends up being, it’ll have a day-night cycle. So that’s nice.

While gaming’s shows experienced ups and downs, September marked the true start of 2012’s release season. Super Hexagon did well as an early taster, and the increasingly popular Walking Dead got its third instalment. The year’s biggest sports launches, FIFA 13 and PES 2013, both hit in September, as did Gearbox’s Borderlands 2. Just in case that wasn’t serious business enough, Blizzard dropped Mists of Pandaria, its latest World of Warcraft expansion.

Rumours surrounding the rest of console gaming’s next generation refused to be drowned out by Nintendo. Michael Pachter warned that Microsoft may push 720 off into 2014, and reports suggested the console may have been experiencing manufacturing problems. More positively, Microsoft patented some kind of projector device and wearable controller tech apparently powered by muscles. All very Star Trek.

Next-gen news wasn’t just limited to traditional consoles, either. Apple announced and released iPhone 5 in September. iPad Mini shots were leaked ahead of the iPhone reveal, but the tablet stayed unannounced until the following month.